Spanish judge frees 4 over Madrid bombings

Moroccan brothers questioned, released

Below:

Next story in Security

MADRID, Spain — A judge released four Moroccan brothers without charges Tuesday after questioning them about last year’s deadly Madrid train bombings, a court official said.

The four Haddad brothers were among 13 people arrested Friday in one of the biggest raids since the March 11, 2004, attack.

One of the brothers, Mohamed Haddad, was ordered to appear in court once a week while police conduct further investigations, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The other three — Mhamed, Driss and Hassan — were freed without restrictions.

Later Tuesday, National Court Judge Juan del Olmo was to question the other nine people arrested in the raid and decide whether to release them or file charges.

The 13 were arrested on suspicion they took part in preparations, such as logistics and recruitment, before the bombing of the four commuter trains. The bombings, Spain’s worst terrorist attack, killed 191 people.

13 accused of links to al-Qaida spokesman, key suspectThe Haddad brothers had been accused of having close links to a Moroccan man believed to be the al-Qaida spokesman whose name was mentioned in a video showing Islamic militants claiming the terror network was behind the Madrid bombings.

The nine others have links to a Tunisian man, Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, who is one of seven key Madrid bombing suspects who killed themselves and a Spanish policeman on April 3, 2004, by setting off a bomb as police moved in to arrest them.

Twenty-five people, most of them Moroccan, have been jailed on provisional charges in connection with the bombings. More than 60 other detainees have been released but are still considered suspects.

Meanwhile, lawmakers investigating the bombings rejected a request to hear testimony from governing Socialist Party member Fernando Huarte, who visited a jailed friend of a key suspect in the attacks, Allekema Lamari. The friend, Abdelkrim Benesmail, has been in jail since 1997 on charges of belonging to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. He has not been charged in relation with the March 11 attacks.

Lamari, considered one of the ringleaders of the March 11 attacks, was among the seven who killed themselves.